Lincoln's Yarns and Stories Part 65

"'Well,' responded Mr. Lincoln, thoughtfully, 'it is only a dream, Mary.

Let us say no more about it, and try to forget it.'

"This dream was so horrible, so real, and so in keeping with other dreams and threatening presentiments of his, that Mr. Lincoln was profoundly disturbed by it. During its recital he was grave, gloomy, and at times visibly pale, but perfectly calm. He spoke slowly, with measured accents and deep feeling.

"In conversations with me, he referred to it afterwards, closing one with this quotation from 'Hamlet': 'To sleep; perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub!' with a strong accent upon the last three words.

"Once the President alluded to this terrible dream with some show of playful humor. 'Hill,' said he, 'your apprehension of harm to me from some hidden enemy is downright foolishness. For a long time you have been trying to keep somebody-the Lord knows who--from killing me.

"'Don't you see how it will turn out? In this dream it was not me, but some other fellow, that was killed. It seems that this ghostly a.s.sa.s.sin tried his hand on some one else. And this reminds me of an old farmer in Illinois whose family were made sick by eating greens.

"'Some poisonous herb had got into the mess, and members of the family were in danger of dying. There was a half-witted boy in the family called Jake; and always afterward when they had greens the old man would say, "Now, afore we risk these greens, let's try 'em on Jake. If he stands 'em we're all right." Just so with me. As long as this imaginary a.s.sa.s.sin continues to exercise himself on others, I can stand it.'

"He then became serious and said: 'Well, let it go. I think the Lord in His own good time and way will work this out all right. G.o.d knows what is best.'

"These words he spoke with a sigh, and rather in a tone of soliloquy, as if hardly noting my presence.

"Mr. Lincoln had another remarkable dream, which was repeated so frequently during his occupancy of the White House that he came to regard it is a welcome visitor. It was of a pleasing and promising character, having nothing in it of the horrible.

"It was always an omen of a Union victory, and came with unerring certainty just before every military or naval engagement where our arms were crowned with success. In this dream he saw a ship sailing away rapidly, badly damaged, and our victorious vessels in close pursuit.

"He saw, also, the close of a battle on land, the enemy routed, and our forces in possession of vantage ground of inestimable importance. Mr.

Lincoln stated it as a fact that he had this dream just before the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg, and other signal engagements throughout the War.

"The last time Mr. Lincoln had this dream was the night before his a.s.sa.s.sination. On the morning of that lamentable day there was a Cabinet meeting, at which General Grant was present. During an interval of general discussion, the President asked General Grant if he had any news from General Sherman, who was then confronting Johnston. The reply was in the negative, but the general added that he was in hourly expectation of a dispatch announcing Johnston's surrender.

"Mr. Lincoln then, with great impressiveness, said, 'We shall hear very soon, and the news will be important.'

"General Grant asked him why he thought so.

"'Because,' said Mr. Lincoln, 'I had a dream last night; and ever since this War began I have had the same dream just before every event of great national importance. It portends some important event which will happen very soon.'

"On the night of the fateful 14th of April, 1865, Mrs. Lincoln's first exclamation, after the President was shot, was, 'His dream was prophetic!'

"Lincoln was a believer in certain phases of the supernatural. a.s.sured as he undoubtedly was by omens which, to his mind, were conclusive, that he would rise to greatness and power, he was as firmly convinced by the same tokens that he would be suddenly cut off at the height of his career and the fullness of his fame. He always believed that he would fall by the hand of an a.s.sa.s.sin.

"Mr. Lincoln had this further idea: Dreams, being natural occurrences, in the strictest sense, he held that their best interpreters are the common people; and this accounts, in great measure, for the profound respect he always had for the collective wisdom of plain people--'the children of Nature,' he called them--touching matters belonging to the domain of psychical mysteries. There was some basis of truth, he believed, for whatever obtained general credence among these 'children of Nature.'

"Concerning presentiments and dreams, Mr. Lincoln had a philosophy of his own, which, strange as it may appear, was in perfect harmony with his character in all other respects. He was no dabbler in divination--astrology, horoscopy, prophecy, ghostly lore, or witcheries of any sort."

EVERY LITTLE HELPED.

As the time drew near at which Mr. Lincoln said he would issue the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation, some clergymen, who feared the President might change his mind, called on him to urge him to keep his promise.

"We were ushered into the Cabinet room," says Dr. Sunderland. "It was very dim, but one gas jet burning. As we entered, Mr. Lincoln was standing at the farther end of the long table, which filled the center of the room. As I stood by the door, I am so very short, that I was obliged to look up to see the President. Mr. Robbins introduced me, and I began at once by saying: 'I have come, Mr. President, to antic.i.p.ate the new year with my respects, and if I may, to say to you a word about the serious condition of this country.'

"'Go ahead, Doctor,' replied the President; 'every little helps.' But I was too much in earnest to laugh at his sally at my smallness."

ABOUT TO LAY DOWN THE BURDEN.

President Lincoln (at times) said he felt sure his life would end with the War. A correspondent of a Boston paper had an interview with him in July, 1864, and wrote regarding it:

"The President told me he was certain he should not outlast the rebellion. As will be remembered, there was dissension then among the Republican leaders. Many of his best friends had deserted him, and were talking of an opposition convention to nominate another candidate, and universal gloom was among the people.

"The North was tired of the War, and supposed an honorable peace attainable. Mr. Lincoln knew it was not--that any peace at that time would be only disunion. Speaking of it, he said: 'I have faith in the people. They will not consent to disunion. The danger is, they are misled. Let them know the truth, and the country is safe.'

"He looked haggard and careworn; and further on in the interview I remarked on his appearance, 'You are wearing yourself out with work.'

"'I can't work less,' he answered; 'but it isn't that--work never troubled me. Things look badly, and I can't avoid anxiety. Personally, I care nothing about a re-election, but if our divisions defeat us, I fear for the country.'

"When I suggested that right must eventually triumph, he replied, 'I grant that, but I may never live to see it. I feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast the rebellion. When it is over, my work will be done.'

"He never intimated, however, that he expected to be a.s.sa.s.sinated."

LINCOLN WOULD HAVE PREFERRED DEATH.

Horace Greeley said, some time after the death of President Lincoln:

"After the Civil War began, Lincoln's tenacity of purpose paralleled his former immobility; I believe he would have been nearly the last, if not the very last, man in America to recognize the Southern Confederacy had its armies been triumphant. He would have preferred death."

"PUNCH" AND HIS LITTLE PICTURE.

London "Punch" was not satisfied with anything President Lincoln did. On December 3rd, 1864, after Mr. Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, a cartoon appeared in one of the pages of that genial publication, the reproduction being printed here, labeled "The Federal Phoenix." It attracted great attention at the time, and was particularly pleasing to the enemies of the United States, as it showed Lincoln as the Phoenix arising from the ashes of the Federal Const.i.tution, the Public Credit, the Freedom of the Press, State Rights and the Commerce of the North American Republic.

President Lincoln's endors.e.m.e.nt by the people of the United States meant that the Confederacy was to be crushed, no matter what the cost; that the Union of States was to be preserved, and that State Rights was a thing of the past. "Punch" wished to create the impression that President Lincoln's re-election was a personal victory; that he would set up a despotism, with himself at its head, and trample upon the Const.i.tution of the United States and all the rights the citizens of the Republic ever possessed.

The result showed that "Punch" was suffering from an acute attack of needless alarm.

FASCINATED By THE WONDERFUL

Lincoln was particularly fascinated by the wonderful happenings recorded in history. He loved to read of those mighty events which had been foretold, and often brooded upon these subjects. His early convictions upon occult matters led him to read all books tending' to strengthen these convictions.

The following lines, in Byron's "Dream," were frequently quoted by him:

"Sleep hath its own world, A boundary between the things misnamed Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world And a wide realm of wild reality.